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Donant MechikRussian theater director, playwright, teacher
Date of Birth: 20.06.1909
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Biography of Donat Mechik
Donat Mechik was a Russian theater director, playwright, and educator. He was born in a Jewish peasant family in the village of Sukhovo, Crimea. His father, Isaac Moiseevich Mechik, worked on the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway. Donat Mechik served in the infantry during the Russo-Japanese War and lived in Harbin with his wife Raisa, where their sons Mikhail, Donat, and Leopold were born. The family later moved to Vladivostok, where Donat worked as an administrator, repairman, and typographer before acquiring a snack bar.
During the Soviet era, Donat Mechik worked as a meter reader at the "Edem" factory, managed a residential office, and became the superintendent of a mirror factory after moving to Leningrad in the mid-1930s. However, in 1937, he was arrested, sentenced on January 18, 1938, and executed on January 27, 1938 (posthumously rehabilitated).
In 1925, his younger son Leopold secretly embarked on a circumnavigation journey and settled in Belgium. His elder son Mikhail, who was friends with A.A. Fadeev, later used the surname Mechik in the novel "The Rout." Donat Mechik's younger brother, Anisim Moiseevich Mechik, emigrated to the United States in the early 1930s.
Early Years and Theatrical Career
During his youth, Donat Mechik had a passion for performing couplets, writing poetry, and playing tennis. From 1925 to 1929, he recited Mikhail Zoshchenko's works on stage. Using the pseudonym "Donat Vesenniy," he wrote and published parodies, novellas, and poems. In 1929, together with his brother Mikhail, Donat Mechik moved to Leningrad and enrolled in the Theater Institute, studying under L.S. Vivien, who later became a People's Artist of the USSR. He performed in various theaters in Leningrad and was involved in the creation of the Theater of Acting Mastery (TAM) in the mid-1930s, working as a director. He directed productions in the S. Radlov branch of the Young Theater, the Transport Theater, the Republican Drama Theater of the Mordovian ASSR, and the Leningrad District Drama Theater.
From 1938 to 1945, together with Vivien, Donat Mechik staged productions at the Leningrad Academic Drama Theater named after A.S. Pushkin, including "The Great Sovereign," "Kremlin Chimes," "A Glass of Water," "Woe from Wit," "Russian People," "The Wedding," and others. During the war, when the theater was evacuated to Novosibirsk, he supervised the literary department. After returning to Leningrad in 1944, he focused on variety show directing, working as a director in the Leningrad Philharmonic and at Lenfilm. One of his most notable productions was "The Quarrel of Ivan Ivanovich with Ivan Nikiforovich" by N.V. Gogol, performed by actors of the Pushkin Theater, V. Merkuryev and Yu. Tolubeyev. He gained widespread recognition during the war for his number "Fire at the Enemy," performed by drama actors A. Borisov and K. Adashevsky. He also directed variety shows at Lenconcert, featuring performances by L. Utesov, A. Belov, B. Brunov, and L. Atmanaki. He directed variety productions such as "First Date" (1948) and "Short and Clear" (1950) by V. Galkovsky, starring G. Orlov and M. Kurdin; "Do Not Pass By" featuring A. Blekhman, T. Kravtsova, and B. Bentsianov; and Kiev programs of the jazz orchestra "Dnipro" with K. Yanitsky, N. Grinko, and E. Medvedeva (1962), among many others.
In 1967, Donat Mechik began teaching acting at the Variety Department of the Music School at the Leningrad Conservatory. He headed the department of the speech genre until 1980. In the late 1950s, as a variety show playwright, he became one of the initiators of the creation of the Variety Playwrights' Professional Committee in Leningrad, where he later led the production and creative commission. Mechik authored several theoretical articles on variety shows and the book "The Art of Acting in Variety" (1972).
In 1980, following his son, writer S. Dovlatov, Donat Mechik emigrated to the United States after being forced to retire in 1978. There, he engaged in literary activities and wrote and published three books: "Knocked Off Track" (1984), "Backstage Curiosities" (1986), and "Theatrical Notes" (1989). His memoirs were published in Russian emigrant press, including the collection "Russika-81," journals such as "Strelets" and "Literaturny Kurier," and newspapers like "Novy Amerikanets" and "Novoe Russkoe Slovo," "Panorama," "Mir," and others. His memoirs were also printed in numerous Russian newspapers and magazines.
Donat Mechik passed away on October 22, 1995, in New York City from lung cancer. His daughter from his second marriage is an American literary scholar, a researcher of her father and brother's literary and epistolary heritage, and a graduate of the Philology Faculty of Leningrad State University (1979).